Journeyman: The only money TVNZ gets from the taxpayer these days is the money that's been allocated to TVNZ7.

Yes but TVNZ is owned by the tax payer so programming should all be FTA..

I applaud the sentiment, but is this not the same as saying that all shareholders of a company should get a discount on goods or services supplied to them by that company equal to their proportion of ownership?

TVNZ is a company owned by the tax-payers. Any profit it makes should be returned to the tax-payers. How it generates that profit is a matter for the company directors to specify, and for the managers to implement. That may or may not include providing perks for shareholders.

A real shame? Really? On the few times I tried to watch this channel I was convinced that TVNZ had invested in a machine to convert excrement directly into television with near perfect efficiency. Including asking teenagers to submit photos of their genitals. Not even the bottom of the barrel, this rot has eaten it's way right through bottom!

Even a pathetically unimaginative time-shift channel will be better than this.

I will never forgive them for the loss of tvnz7, and I think NZ has been worse off without it. It was relatively cheap to run, considering what it offered. Instead via the funding agency, they give millions for the license to run these talent shows in NZ, which people forget all about after they have finished. Let alone how much was given for the yacht racing. Then our taxpayer funded old programs on heartland tv, are being used by a paytv network to strengthen their own content offerings. Then we have millions being spent sending out letters to people to say that analogue TV is being turned off, have received 3 envelopes myself with this information. This appear to be a different organisation to freeview, who are sending these letters. I think the system is broken, and there are too many departments clipping the ticket. Although I never watched U, and it looked a bit trashy, I hope the young people voice their concerns, it will be good for them.